Sadhus Vow: No More Human Sacrifices,

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GUWAHATI, INDIA (24 June 2003 16:26) - Hundreds of sadhus pledged

Tuesday to fight ancient barbaric rituals of human sacrifices at the

few places in India where the grisly practice continues.

 

"A very miniscule cult still believes that to achieve supernatural

magical powers one needs to sacrifice a child at the altar," Biswajit

Giri, a 45-year-old sadhu, told AFP. "The practice of human

sacrifice ... has not died down completely and is being carried out

in many select temples secretly."

 

Giri is among some 50,000 ascetics who have assembled at the temple

of the goddess Kamakhya in Guwahati for the annual Ambubachi Mela, a

four-day ritual that began on Sunday.

 

The Kamakhya temple has long been considered the highest seat of

Tantricism. Mystics who gather at the temple claim they can perform

wonders -- make a childless couple conceive, find a distressed loner

a spouse or cast an evil spell on others.

 

"We have been working hard to create awareness to stop such grisly

human sacrifices and other such heinous occult practices that do not

fit into the modern way of life," said Birati Baba, a 60-year-old

seer who belongs to the secret Aghor cult. "We should put an end to

all barbaric practices as such incidents defame tantricism."

 

Last week, a self-proclaimed sadhu almost sacrificed his 18-month-old

daughter at the Kamakhya temple. Amritlal Mazumdar was slicing his

daughters neck with a razor when her screams of pain alerted devotees

who rescued the baby from being sacrificed.

 

"It seems the man was a lunatic and we managed to save the child from

being sacrificed. The man was arrested by police later," temple

official Tara Nath Sharma said. "We have deployed special volunteers

at the temple to prevent any such bad things from happening."

 

Earlier this year, two children were sacrificed in Tripura after a

devotee had a dream that offering human lives to the deity would lead

him to hidden treasures.

 

Legend has it that human sacrifices were widespread in Assam although

the practice was officially abandoned some 250 years ago.

 

"There was a temple called Kasai Kathi (slaughter house) in eastern

Assam's Sadia area where it was said human sacrifices were

performed," said Pradeep Sharma, a researcher on tantricism. "But we

have no evidence to prove this as the temple is now razed to the

ground after heavy flooding triggered by a killer earthquake that

rocked the state in 1950."

 

Many of the monks who have assembled here from various parts of India

and Nepal say human sacrifices continue in many places, although such

rituals are steeped in secrecy to avoid public gaze and controversy.

 

"Human sacrifices are an essential ingredient to appease the goddess

and then get her divine blessings," said another sage. "But then

nowadays you dont get volunteers for the sacrifice and hence, as

something symbolic, devotees perform the ritual using six-foot

effigies made of flour."

 

Source: SIFY News

URL: http://sify.com/news/othernews/fullstory.php?id=13180285